


this world is a goldmine that will melt tomorrow

by orphan_account



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Book 4: The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson), Gen, Introspection, Missing Scene, as much as you can in their situation, bonding...a little
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24412645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: annabeth and nico in the gift shop. tiny missing scene from botl.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase & Nico di Angelo, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 1
Kudos: 41





	this world is a goldmine that will melt tomorrow

"I'm going to look for a prism in the gift shop, try to send an Iris message to Chiron," Annabeth said.

“I’ll go with you,” Nico said. “I’m hungry.”

. . . 

The bell tinged pleasantly as Annabeth pushed open the door and met with neatly organized aisles and mellow jazz. She wasn’t sure what the other people in the little gift shop were thinking, but everyone was giving them a wide berth. A middle aged woman threw a concerned glance their way. The girl behind the register’s mouth fell open, and Annabeth saw Nico glance worriedly at her out of the corner of her eye. “We’re fine,” she muttered. “Just ignore them.”

When they reached the section in the back that was filled with prisms, snowglobes, and assorted knicknacks- among them a full length mirror, she saw why. 

She’d expected some dirt, but her entire body looked like she’d rolled around in a garbage heap. Her hair was tangled, and her clothes were grimy and torn. Nico looked worse, if that was possible. Aside from the general pallor he was wearing nowadays, his eyes looked wild and his hair was sticking up at odd angles. He looked like, well, a kid that had been living underground and on the streets for however many months. 

“We look like death,” Nico said. “Well, me more than you.” Annabeth sighed and bent down to rummage through the bin, looking for a decently sized prism. She pulled out a plastic one and tried to clean the dust off with her shirt (which just made it dirtier), and then it struck her that it was the first time she’d seen Nico in weeks. 

She whirled on him, and his eyes went wide. “Nico, are you ok?”

“Just peachy,” he said tiredly. He scuffed at the floor with his beat-up combat boots.

“Where have you been? You- did you see Luke? How did you run into him?” Annabeth caught the girl at the register sneaking a suspicious glance at them as her voice rose. They were probably the most interesting thing she’d seen in months. 

Nico noticed too. “It’s a long story. We don’t have time.” He saw Annabeth’s face and groaned. “I’m fine, ok? I’m going to get some Doritos.”

He ran off before she could ask him anything else. She stowed her questions away for later and bent to let the prism catch the light. 

. . . 

Nico came back just as the image was fading out, munching on potato chips.

“Chiron needs us back as soon as possible,” Annabeth said, feeling her anxiety mounting. “He said- hey, you sure you’re ok? You look really pale.”

Nico frowned. “I used up too much energy back there. With Minos.”

“You need ambrosia,” Annabeth said, pulling a few squares out of her pack. “Potato chips are definitely not what you need.”

Nico looked at the squares a bit skeptically before shrugging and popping them into his mouth. Annabeth took one for herself and chewed contemplatively. 

Back with Minos…how had Nico done that? 

Her mind was still buzzing when a line from the prophecy suddenly arose, clear as day. Her mouth fell open.

“What?” Nico asked. 

“The ghost king…” she murmured. “That means…”

“Oh.” Nico frowned. “I don’t know what I was thinking. “It… sounds kinda stupid, now that I think about it.”

Annabeth shook her head. “No, it’s right.” Then she smiled. “And it was Minos who said it first, so don’t think we think you’re an egomaniac.”

Nico grinned for a second, but then the reality of their situation seemed to crash down on him again. He sighed. “We should get going. Thanks, um, Annabeth.”

“No problem.” Annabeth zipped up her pack and put the prism gingerly back into the bin.

The ghost king… another line of the prophecy down. That left the lines that made her stomach drop just thinking about them. That made her wonder if…

No. It couldn’t be Percy. It would be too cruel for the Fates to put her through that twice. In a way she felt like… Percy was safe now. She’d felt what it was like to lose him and he’d come back over that hilltop, interrupting his own funeral, grinning wryly, as though he’d slipped through the net of the Fates just as it’d been cast. 

Something about Percy was too fierce and alive, too changeable, to be pinned down like that- by a line from a mummy in a dusty attic. 

“Um, Annabeth?”

She shook herself. Nico was staring at her with wide eyes that looked almost out of place on his gaunt face. 

She had a sudden flashback of a cheery kid looking incredulously up at her as she charged, snow crunching under her feet. 

“Sorry,” she murmured. “I got lost in thought.”

Nico nodded. As he turned away, she found that she couldn’t quite shake that image of the kid in the snow. 

“Are you really ok?” she found herself asking. 

“Are you ok?” he returned, raising his eyebrows.“You’re looking at me funny.”

There was no way- and no time- to explain to him that she wished there was some other way they could’ve both ended up here. There wasn’t any way to assuage the guilt she felt when she realized that she was taking comfort in the common ground they now shared. 

The happy kid in the snow was him, but that kid wouldn’t be standing in the little gift shop with her, feeling the stares and the whispers of the mortals that didn’t know anything, bearing the same burden of hardship and grief. He was one of them now, for better or for worse. 

So instead she said, “I was just thinking…. thank you for coming back for us.”

He met her eyes. “I had to. You guys… you’re the only-“

“I know. I get it, Nico.”

He smiled at her again, a small one, and then shook himself. “Okay, I think that lady at the register might throw us out if we loiter any longer.”

“Yeah, me too.”

. . . 

They broke out into the sunlight and the cool air outside. She saw Rachel sprinting towards them, her hair like a fire. 

And there was Percy, meeting her eyes with a sea-green glance that told her everything she needed to know in a second. 

Her heart felt light despite absolutely everything, and she wasn’t sure why.

**Author's Note:**

> pjo tv show... I'm so pumped. all I've wanted since second grade
> 
> I could write paragraphs upon paragraphs about Nico's mischaracterization in hoo and beyond... but that's an issue for another day
> 
> thanks for reading!


End file.
